The Twitallica Essays
by cynic.in.a.fishbowl
Summary: A series of essays/dissertations dealing with the fact that with a little creative interpretation, it could be said that the plot of Twilight was jacked from Metallica's Death Magnetic album.
1. Premise

Hi everyone. My basic premise is that the plot of the Twilight series was jacked more or less directly from lyrics of Metallica songs, specifically their 2008 Death Magnetic album.

I know that's entirely irrational, as the books were all published before the album came out, but with some creative interpreting, you can see that there are some striking similarities.

I'll be writing my essays (well they're not essays so much as dissertations) in the order of the tracks as listed on the album. Depending on how these are received, I'll be diversifying into other Metallica songs and probably other bands as well, should I find anything that with enough creative interpreting could vaguely resemble Twilight; although at the moment, Metallica's the only band that stands out.

The track order for Death Magnetic is as follows:

That Was Just Your Life

The End Of The Line

Broken, Beat & Scarred

The Day That Never Comes

All Nightmare Long

Cyanide

The Unforgiven III

The Judas Kiss

Suicide & Redemption

My Apocalypse

Each chapter will begin with the lyrics of the song, followed by my interpretation or whatever you want to call it. The lyrics will be separated into verses (**bold**), choruses (_italics_), bridges (underlined), and any deep and meaningful statements that might have been tacked on the end of stuff for effects (_**italicised bold**_).

I recommend listening to the songs either as you're reading the chapter, or prior: it adds to the humour somewhat as you realise that the lyrics only sound all deep and meaningful when they're written out. When you hear them being sung, especially with the accompanying instrumentation, you see that they do not, nor could they ever, have anything to do with twilight.

Here goes nothing…

Adela (.)


	2. That Was Just Your Life

**That was just your life.**

**Like a siren in my head that always threatens to repeat**

**Like a blind man that is strapped into the speeding driver's seat**

**Like a face **

**That learns to speak**

**When all it knew was how to bite**

**Like a misery that keeps me focussed though I've gone astray**

**Like an endless nightmare that I must awaken from each day**

**Like conviction**

**A premonition**

**Not worthy of, so I deny… I deny…**

_I blind my eyes and try to force it all into place._

_I stitch them up; see not my fall from grace._

_I blind my eyes; I hide and feel it passing me by._

_I open just in time to say goodbye_

_Almost like your life._

_Almost like your endless fight._

_Curse the day is long._

_Realize you don't belong._

_Disconnect somehow_

_Never stop the bleeding now_

_Almost like your fight._

_And there it went. _

_Almost like your life._

**Like a wound that keeps on bleeding, to remind me not to think.**

**Like a raging river downing when I only need a drink.**

**Like a poison**

**That I swallow**

**But I want the world to die**

**Like a release from prison that I didn't know I was in.**

**Like a fight to leave the past I prayed to leave from way back then.**

**Like a general**

**Without a mission**

**Until the war will start again… start again.**

_I blind my eyes and try to force it all into place._

_I stitch them up, see not my fall from grace._

_I blind my eyes, I hide and feel it passing me by._

_I open just in time to say goodbye_

_Almost like your life._

_Almost like your endless fight._

_Curse the day is long._

_Realize you don't belong._

_Disconnect somehow_

_Never stop the bleeding now_

_Almost like your fight._

_And there it went. _

_Almost like your life._

Like a touch from hell to feel how hot that it can get if you get caught.

Like a strike from heaven to reprieve which brings you straight down to your knees.

_Almost like your life._

_Almost like your endless fight._

_Curse the day is long._

_Realize you don't belong._

_Disconnect somehow_

_Never stop the bleeding now_

_Almost like your fight._

_And there it went. _

_Almost like your life._

_**That was just your life.**_

That Was Just Your Life is an incredibly dark song, centring mainly around Edward. It could be seen to deal with his overwhelming obsession with Bella: both as a person and as a potential food source. There is specific reference to Edward's moral dilemma at the beginning of Twilight, as he has an internal battle between his killer instinct and his internal fuzziness. There is also an examination of how Edward begins to live in a sense when he finds his beloved in Bella. This is juxtaposed by the numerous incidents in Which Edward screws Bella over, be it emotionally, physically or both. Furthermore, the song includes a contrast between the changes the relationship has caused in Edward, looking at both the positive and negative. Finally, the song ends with a statement that more or less sums up the entire concept of the Twilight series.

At the beginning of Twilight, Edward is overcome by an urge to drink Bella's blood. We receive verification of this assertion in the unfinished manuscript of Breaking Dawn which is now widely available on the internet. The lyrics allude to this through oblique references to the internal debate Edward goes through, deciding wether or not to massacre the class in an attempt to get him some blood. The concept of Edward's outlook of life (or whatever it is he does) is epitomised in the lyrics. **Like a siren in my head that always threatens to repeat** refers to the instinct within him that insists he drink her blood. It could also be seen as a foreshadow of the whole _la tua cantata_ thing that comes up in New Moon. Alternately, the use of the word 'siren' could be used to imply that there is something inherently evil about Bella or the fact that she's there to torment him with her scent. The following line, **Like a blind man that is strapped into the speeding driver's seat**, could be seen to be examining the fact that Edward is entirely unprepared for his urges, likening the fact that he feels completely out of control in an unfamiliar situation with what the lyrics depict. **Like a face that learns to speak when all it knew was how to bite** reiterates the comparison Edward has in his head of what he was before and after rejoining Carlisle and going vegetarian. The idea that he has that being with Carlisle has made him more civilised as a vampire could be seen in the concept that prior to his revegetarianising, he was just a killing machine (**all it knew was how to bite**). The following two lines, **Like a misery that keeps me focussed though I've gone astray. Like an endless nightmare that I must awaken from each day**, look at the continued pervasion of Bella's scent, and Edward's continued struggle to not rip her head off. The 'endless nightmare' reference is especially interesting, as Edward has a mild preoccupation with the fact that as a vampire, he is unable to sleep, although it could also be seen as an examination of the fact that Edward initially thinks that Bella is a tool sent by some nasty and vengeful deity to torment him for his numerous and wide ranging sins. Finally, **Like conviction. A premonition; not worthy of, so I deny… I deny…**, looks at how Edward initially (following his decision not to lay waste to Bella) believes himself unworthy of her, a theme that pops up periodically throughout the series. There is also the repetition of the words 'I deny' which could be seen as a reference to Edward's continuous resolve not to give in and drink the blood which he so obviously desires.

The chorus examines the fact that Edward's life changes following the advent of Bella. There are two conflicting themes: the fact that Edward knows that what he's doing with Bella is, at the end of the day, a perversion of nature; which is contrasted with the fact that he doesn't care, and continues his relationship (for lack of a better word: paedophilic stalking seemed a little too verbose) with her anyway. _Realize you don't belong._ Deals with the fact that Edward knows full well that Bella is alive, and he isn't, and thus, not only is their relationship one of necrophilia, it is one that perverts the basic laws of nature, and thumbs it's nose at the laws of Charles Darwin, which dictate that animals mate to ensure the survival of the species. Their relationship goes against this law in two ways. To start with, vampires reproduce asexually, thus Edward does not need this relationship. Furthermore, regardless of what Stephenie Meyer asserts, dead men would logically produce only dead sperm (if they produced any at all), and dead sperm doesn't cause a live foetus. _Disconnect somehow, never stop the bleeding now_ examines Edward's attempt to leave Bella 'for her own good', and the fact that neither of them has a fun time of them, both of them spiritually 'bleeding' as it were. The repeated references to ignorance at the beginning of the chorus (_I blind my eyes and try to force it all into place. I stitch them up; see not my fall from grace. I blind my eyes; I hide and feel it passing me by._, with blindness implying refusal to come to terms with reality, not referring to lack of sight) look at the fact that Edward refuses to realise that he should let Bella have a boyfriend who is not only alive, but who doesn't constantly have a rather large proportion of his brain whispering 'go for it. You'll enjoy it.' whenever he's in close proximity to her. _try to force it all into place_ examines how Edward tries to make their more or less doomed relationship work, counteracting Bella's fatal levels of patheticity. _see not my fall from grace_ could be a reference to the fact that Edward doesn't realise (or doesn't care) that he is nothing more than a glorified paedophile who is inciting necrophilia. That qualifies as a pretty extensive fall from grace in most civilised (and a large proportion of uncivilised) cultures. _I hide and feel it passing me by_ could be interpreted as an insight into the fact that Edward's lack of insight leads to the near death of his then wife, followed by her vampirisation (if he'd been paying closer attention, he would have realised that Bella was preggers, and he could have aborted then and there, thus saving the world from names such as Renesmee Carlie. _Curse the day is long_ is a continued reference to Edward's preoccupation with his inability to sleep, and his ensuing doubts about his humanity (it's a convoluted train of thought, but I didn't perpetuate it, Stephenie Meyer did.). the repeated use of the word _Almost_ is interesting, especially when coupled with the references to life and fighting, as it could refer to the fact Edward was preventing Bella from living a normal human life through his obsessive overprotectiveness, thus damning her to an eternity of almosts. The line _And there it went_ deals with the fleetingness of human life, as well as the fact that with Edward's meddling, Bella's life becomes even more fleeting: so much so that her entire life story can more or less be read within the space of a few days.

The second verse is rather complex. It juxtaposes Edwards commencement of actually living his eternal existence, instead of just moping around writing poncey piano music (the positive) with all the nasty stuff that gets inflicted upon Bella as a result of his proximity (the negative). **Like a general without a mission until the war will start again… start again.** , when coupled with **Like a release from prison that I didn't know I was in.** shows Edward's lack of realisation that there was more to his existence that he had believed possible before encountering Bella. The repetition of the words 'start again' can be seen as a portrayal of Edward's subconscious impatience for something interesting to happen to him (this too is evidenced somewhat in Midnight Sun). This is sharply contrasted with the negative aspects of the verse, and to an extent, the books in general. **Like a wound that keeps on bleeding, to remind me not to think.** is a portrayal of Bella's mindset in New Moon, due to her imagery of there being a gaping wound in her chest that would reopen whenever she thought of Edward. **Like a raging river downing when I only need a drink.** examines Bella's shock at the speed with which everything gets out of hand following her little cliff diving adventure, as she had just wanted a little bit of an adrenalin rush (**a drink**), but instead, she nearly drowns, Edward thinks she's dead, and she goes off to Italy to stop some other vampires from killing him (**a raging river drowning**). The following line, **Like a poison that I swallow but I want the world to die**, coupled with **Like a fight to leave the past I prayed to leave from way back then.** look at Edward's thought processes. The former deals with the fact that he wants the Volturi to kill him off after he hears the news of Bella's 'death', when it's not so much his own death that he wants, it's the generalised destruction of all life in general: because if his love is gone, what's the point of anyone being allowed to exist. The latter looks at Edward's belief that it was his fault Bella was 'dead', the past referenced being back when he wanted to drink her blood.

The bridge of the song shows how the relationship has affected Edward. The first line (Like a touch from hell to feel how hot that it can get if you get caught.) examines the fact that Edward gains his first experience of how someone can affect you. The reference to hell is linked to Edward's belief that he is headed for eternal damnation, as well as his admission that the time in which he believed Bella to be dead was akin to being in hell for him. The second line (Like a strike from heaven to reprieve which brings you straight down to your knees.) examines the overwhelming power of the love shared between Bella and Edward (I can't believe I actually wrote that), the strength of which is so vast that Edward is metaphorically in awe of it and her.

The final statement: _**That was just your life**_ somewhat epitomises the Twilight series. After all, what is Twilight but an endless stream of consciousness that outlines the life of an insipid and boring girl with no personality traits?

**Well, that was the first… what did you think?**

**I'm assuming that by now you've all realised I'm a Bella and Edward basher, but I'm open to abuse on that front.**

**Also, if you had trouble reading it because of the interminably long paragraph lengths, just review, leaving your email (it also works for anonymous reviews, as long as you leave an email), and I'll email you this as a word document so that you can format it however you want for easy reading.**


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